Chapter 11: Foundation's Fury
The sulfurous air crackled with tension thicker than the geothermal fog. Zhang's mud-caked face contorted from rage to disbelief as Kai rose, wreathed in **violet Qi** that hummed with primordial power. The ground beneath Kai's feet *sizzled*, not from heat, but from raw energy scorching reality itself.
"Demonic arts?!" Zhang spat, his Mid-Stage Foundation aura flaring – jade-green tendrils snaking around his spirit-steel blade. "The Patriarch will flay your soul for this heresy!"
Kai's voice cut through the hissing vents, colder than the Frostwhisper Orchid: "You broke me once, Zhang. Now watch me *unbreak*."
**<< Combat Protocol Initiated. Target: Zhang Wei. Cultivation: Foundation Establishment (Mid Stage). Threat Assessment: Moderate (Host Meridian Stability: 98%). >>**
Zhang lunged, blade screaming. "**Vinefang Execution!**" Jade-green serpents of solidified Qi erupted from the earth, fangs aimed at Kai's heart.
Kai didn't dodge.
***CRUNCH.***
The vines shattered against Kai's upraised forearm like glass hitting granite. Violet light pulsed where they impacted, dissolving them into shimmering dust. Kai didn't flinch. "Your tricks," he stated, flexing his hand, violet energy crackling between his fingers, "feel like rain."
Zhang's eyes widened. Fear, primal and cold, pierced his fury. He roared, channeling his core into his ultimate technique. "**Soul-Crippling Gale!**" A vortex of screaming wind, sharp as shattered glass and saturated with decay Qi, engulfed Kai.
**<< Analyzing Technique... >>**
**<< Weakness Detected: Core pulse instability at 3.2-second intervals. >>**
**<< Vulnerability Window: 0.4 seconds. >>**
Numbers scrolled across Kai's vision. The System wasn't just analyzing; it was *calculating*. Kai felt the gale tear at his robes, the decay Qi gnawing at the edges of his Violet aura. He waited, body thrumming with power, eyes locked on Zhang's core through the maelstrom.
*Three... Two... NOW.*
Kai vanished. Not with the speed of **Heavenly Step**, but in a burst of fractured starlight – **Void Shimmer**, an instinctive application of his new spatial awareness. He reappeared *inside* Zhang's guard, the gale shrieking harmlessly behind him. His palm, wreathed in compacted violet light, slammed into Zhang's lower dantian.
***Flickering Palm Strike: Celestial Variant.***
***KRA-KOOM!***
The sound wasn't physical. It was the detonation of spiritual potential. Violet light exploded *within* Zhang's core. His jade aura flickered, died, then erupted outwards from his mouth and eyes in a shower of green sparks. He crumpled, not dead, but spiritually gutted, his cultivation shattered.
**<< Target Neutralized. Spiritual Sea Fractured. Cultivation Base: Destroyed. >>**
Kai stood over the broken disciple leader. Triumph warred with a sudden, lancing pain. He looked down. Hairline cracks, glowing faintly violet, spiderwebbed up his forearms.
**<< Warning: Celestial Meridian Overload. Stability: 89%. >>**
**<< Recommendation: Cease Qi expenditure immediately. Or don't. See if I care. >>**
*Glass cannon indeed,* Kai thought grimly. Power with a price.
He knelt beside the whimpering Zhang. "Project Emberfall," Kai stated, not asking. "Tell me."
Zhang spat blood, eyes burning with impotent hate. "Go... to hell..."
Kai placed a single, violet-tinged finger on Zhang's forehead. The meridian cracks on his arm pulsed brighter. Zhang screamed as Kai forced a minuscule thread of destructive Qi into his fractured mind.
"**EMBERFALL!**" Zhang shrieked, images flooding his terror – elders chanting under a blood moon, a drill-like artifact plunging towards a pulsating heart of light deep within the Whispering Woods. "Core harvest... full moon... three days... Skyrend Vein is key...!"
Kai ripped the spatial pouch from Zhang's belt. Inside:
- A **jade slip** etched with a glowing topographical map – the **Skyrend Vein**, deep in the Middle Woods.
- A **Soul Token** projecting Kai's scarred face and a bounty: *"WANTED: 10,000 Spirit Stones. DEAD."*
- A vial of **Spirit-Severing Poison** (unused).
As Kai stood, Zhang gasped a final curse. Kai ended him with a swift, merciful strike of the Boar Tusk Dagger. He set the body alight with a controlled burst of Violet Qi.
The pyre burned green and violet against the hellish landscape. As the flames climbed, the sky *rippled*. A colossal, lidless **golden eye** materialized above, cold and alien, fixing on Kai.
***<< HEAVENLY LOCK DETECTED. >>***
***<< ANOMALY: CELESTIAL SIGNATURE. PROTOCOL: CONTAINMENT. >>***
***<< SYSTEM PENALTY ACTIVATED: SP ACQUISITION RATE -50%. >>***
Kai's vision blurred. A crushing weight pressed on his dantian, like chains forged from starlight. The System interface flickered erratically.
"Who are you?!" Kai roared at the eye, Violet Qi flaring defensively. The cracks on his arms widened.
The voice that echoed wasn't sound; it was thought forced into his mind: ***"Fracture in fate. You will be unmade."***
Then, the eye vanished. Snow began to fall – thick, unnatural flakes that hissed as they hit the warm rocks.
**<< Environmental Shift Detected: Choir-Induced Glacial Front. ETA: 6 hours. >>**
**<< Recommendation: Run. Again. But fancier this time. >>**
Kai didn't hesitate. He snatched the Skyrend Vein map and plunged southwest, **Heavenly Step** amplified by desperation and Violet Qi. He was a violet comet streaking through the dying geothermal zone, leaving the unnatural snow and the weight of the golden eye behind.
The Verdant Cloud Sect wanted him dead. Now, something infinitely older and colder wanted him *erased*. The Skyrend Vein wasn't just a source of SP anymore. It was a lifeline. And he had three days before the Sect ripped the heart out of the Whispering Woods.
The cracks on his arms throbbed with every stride, a constant reminder: his newfound power was borrowed time. The hunt had changed. He wasn't just fighting a sect anymore.
He was bait for gods.
> **System SP Counter:** 145 (Acquisition Rate: -50% Penalty Active)
> **Celestial Meridian Stability:** 87%
> **Next Target:** Skyrend Vein (Middle Woods) - 8.7 miles SSW
> **Countdown:** 71 hours until Full Moon ("Project Emberfall")